Dangerous by Design: LA-LB-Santa Ana's Unsafe Streets

Los Angeles –Long Beach-Santa Ana Metro Area Is The Third Most Dangerous Place to Cross the Street of any Metro Area in the County.Yet It Lags Behind on Funding Safe StreetsRanking 48th of 52 Ranked Regions in Spending to Protect Pedestrians.Ranks 27th in Nation for Preventable Pedestrian Deaths

LOS ANGELES, CA. — Los Angeles –Long Beach-Santa Ana Metro Areais among the most dangerous communities in the nation for pedestrians, ranking third in the percentage of crashes involving pedestrians and 27th out of the 52 largest metro areas in total pedestrian safety, a new report shows.Unfortunately, the report also shows that our Metro area shows the least political will to correct the problem, ranking in the bottom 10% when it comes to spending funds to protect the most vulnerable road users.

The report, Dangerous by Design: Solving the Epidemic of Preventable Pedestrian Deaths (and Making Great Neighborhoods), ranks America’s major metropolitan areas and states according to a Pedestrian Danger Index that assesses how safe they are for walking. An update of the 2004 Mean Streets report, Dangerous by Design was released by Transportation for America (T4America.org) and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership.

The report authors note that most pedestrian deaths are preventable, because they occur on streets that are designed to encourage speeding traffic and lack safe sidewalks, crosswalks, pedestrian signals and other protections. Fixing these problems is a matter of will on the part of state departments of transportation and local communities, and of shifting spending priorities, the report concludes.

The report also examined how states and localities are spending federal money that could be used to make the most dangerous streets safer, and found that Los Angeles –Long Beach-Santa Ana Metro Arearanks 48th, spending (only) $0.45 per person.Yet, 26.99% of traffic deaths in the metro area are pedestrians, making the metro area the 3rd highest rating location in the nation.This percentage is particularly high since only 2.7% of the population walks to work

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“Los Angeles is where we are in the rankings because we are not investing to protect our citizens from speeding traffic as well as designing and building livable streets in our neighborhoods,” said Deborah Murphy, Founder of Los Angeles Walks, “Be it the horrific crash that claimed the lives of two USC students after one was drug for almost 200 yards, or the case of a commuter being slammed by a city-bus in a crosswalk downtown; there are too many crashes every year that point to a dangerous system in need of real investment.”

Unfortunately, these types of crashes are all-too frequent.Just last night, a pedestrian was killed by a car while legally crossing the street in a crosswalk in Long Beach.

While walking conditions remain perilous across the country, many communities are working to make their streets safe and welcoming for people on foot or bicycle, the report shows. Communities across the country are beginning to reverse the dangerous legacy of 50 years of anti-pedestrian policies by retrofitting or building new roads as “complete streets” that are safer for walking and bicycling as well as motorists.

The City of Los Angeles has made important progress with new policies and strategies, like the new Downtown Street Standards, however they have yet to implement these policies and standards to make our streets safer for pedestrians, as well as creating more livable streets for our communities.Other cities in Los Angeles County, such as the City of Santa Monica, have aggressive programs and projects that address pedestrian safety issues as well as promoting more walking to reduce traffic congestion, improve air quality and improve the health and welfare of the residents, employees and visitors in Santa Monica.Other cities could learn a lot from Santa Monica and make the streets of our metro area safer and more livable.

One small step the City of Los Angeles could make immediately is setting aside a portion of its Measure R Local Return funds for bicycle and pedestrian safety.The City Council Transportation Committee is set to vote on how to spend it’s portion of the county-wide transit tax on November 18.

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“Here in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana Metro area, we could be saving lives and encouraging more residents to engage in healthy levels of activity by investing in sidewalks, crosswalks, traffic calming and other safety measures,” said Ms. Murphy. “However, in many cases we are hampered by local, state and federal policies that continue to promote dangerous conditions.”

“As Congress prepares to rewrite the nation’s transportation law, this report is yet another wake-up call showing why it is so urgent to update our policies and spending priorities,” said James Corless, director of Transportation for America.

Under the current federal transportation bill, less than 1.5 percent of available funds nationally are directed toward pedestrian safety, although pedestrians account for nearly 12 percent of all traffic deaths and 9 percent of total trips. Between 2007 and 2008, more than 700 children under the age of 15 were killed walking.

Seven organizations served on the steering committee for this report, working closely with T4 America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership. These organizations include the American Public Health Association, AARP, Smart Growth America, America Bikes, America Walks, the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the National Complete Streets Coalition.

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ABOUT LOS ANGELES WALKS

Los Angeles Walks is a volunteer-driven organization dedicated to promoting an awareness of the metropolitan area as a network of interesting, walkable neighborhoods, and to foster the development of safe and vibrant environments for all pedestrians. losangeleswalks@gmail.com.

ABOUT TRANSPORTATION FOR AMERICA (T4AMERICA)

Transportation for America is a broad coalition of housing, environmental, equal opportunity, public health, urban planning, transportation and other organizations focused on creating a 21st century national transportation program. The coalition’s goal is to build a modernized infrastructure and healthy communities where people can live, work and play by aligning national, state and local transportation policies with an array of issues like economic opportunity, climate change, energy security, health, housing and community development. www.t4america.org